For those who wonder: https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/moving-entities-around
I agree that finding indexed help is difficult if not near impossible. So I use Google with the right key words if needed, very rarely though.
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The instructor could be used to link to the specific help pages., as they do allready for some of the tools…
I mentioned that way up there 
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I do find it unfortunate that physical manuals tend to be outdated these days. For product cost cutting or saving the trees reasons whatever they may be.
PDF manuals are in my opinion, a bit annoying in that I find a particular software manual of 450 pages just tedious to navigate through to find the relevant parts. SketchUp on the other hand doesn’t even have an up to date PDF. The older version 7 one is still relevant but not up to date.
All in all, I suppose it’s all in the way the information is presented. I’ve found many answers on the Help Center, but I agree it does need work. Just larger submenus of tools/functions would be nice, it’s all a bit bundled from what I’ve seen.
If I had a preference it would be a good old physical manual, I’ve had best experiences with those for many things. But I doubt that will happen.
One thing I do really like is the connection to the user base the SketchUp team has in the way of a almost constant flurry of tips videos and livestreams.
I agree there should be a comprehensive indexed help. My personal experience as it pertains to Adobe for example, is that while they have a complete help section for all of their programs’ tools, 9 times out of 10 I find them less helpful than a forum answer! While the technical info is there and written by them, the forum or user experience answer comes from a different perspective which aligns more with mine as a fellow user. Maybe because its written by the developer who understandably has more comprehension, whereas the help written by the lay person is approached from a non-presumptive perspective and from experience knows better how to communicate that?
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Yes, I had read that, was merely suggesting that, as @g.h.hubers explained, using google search will often do the trick, but also brings you a variety of links to choose, the links in the instructor will have the ones who get you at the right spot in the ‘native’ SketchUp help files.
The instructor gif’s should be updated and cover the whole range of tools.
I’ve found that a lot of those complaining about help, do not know that there are direct links into the User Guide from the bottom of the Instructor pages.
I also just did a test in v2018. Activated the Rectangle Tool and pressed F1.
The page that appeared was totally unhelpful.
SHIFT + F1 … same thing
At the least the Help hotkey should bring up a relevant guide page for the active native tool.
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Thank you all so much for your replies and suggestions. I did not intend to disparage the users of this group but rather the fact that SU has made this the only place to get real help. I will test using the “instructor” more. I do see the value in the vast experience held by some of the users. It is truly an excellent place to take a very deep dive into the program and it’s functions. I would not expect SU to be able to provide that level of nuance in it’s pages. I do expect SU to do it’s job and document the basic and intermediate functions in a clear and professional way. I clearly hit on a topic that is a concern and a sore spot for many of the users and I am glad I was able to give all of you a place to share your view of the SU documentation and support. When the program was bought by Trimble I was encouraged and hopeful they would apply the precision they achieve with thier surveying tools to the program. I think it is clear they they failed to take on that mandate. Hopefully threads like this will be seen by the company and motivate them to take SU to the next level. I think we can end this thread now and move on or move to a new expression of the issue. Best Regards to you all.
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Nice to notice am not the only one with same issues.
If I can appreciate the Sketchup concept, I just hate this company attitude. Within years, some bugs have never been fixed and the commercial politic is really not that great.
Unfortunately, Sketchup has its particularities and I don’t know of any program that function that way and we have to admit that for the price, we get what we get.
Very good point, thank
I agree with Locis. I’ve asked a few questions on this forum, most of which were either never answered or maybe answered after a long time. When one is attempting to do something, waiting a week, a few days, or even a day is like no help whatsoever.
If you pay the subscription, you will get no better help.
I like sketchup, though, and I’ve hung in there but there are things that I can’t do or can’t do well that I’d really like to be able to do. What I do, is come back to them later and try again. Sometimes that’s been successful and sometimes not yet.
When I attempted to update from 2016 to 2017, it didn’t work. I attempted to get help and there was no help. I just reverted back to the 2016 version.
The same thing happened when AutoDesk acquired Eagle, the pcb layout & circuit design program. When Eagle was an independent program, there was this one guy who supported all be himself for a while. One could call in and get an answer. Now their help is worthless. One person. A big investment. At Eagle, that one guy probably sold more copies a year than his salary.
This just isn’t true by my experience on this forum although there have been a couple of times where it was true.
since joining you have created two topics which had 53 replies, most on the day of posting, how is that a bad experience???
john
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I repeat myself, I was not directly criticizing the forum itself but rather the necessity of it. It is a fine place to ask for and get good advise. The more I use it the more I like it . . .And . . . It has not all ways been so good . . . And . . the only reason it is good is because SU will not document it’s own program in a professional way . . And. . . It is not the best way to search for specific answers. . .Sorry if any of you felt criticized . . . Sorry if your appreciation of the forum seemed to be challenged . . .thank you to those that understood my position . . .thank you to those that challenged it. We can stop now and move on. I have shared my voice and I feel it was acknowledged. I have learned for the experience and I will try to be a better member of the community. Thank you
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(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)
JensCapeTown
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I would never, ever, consider using a Mac.
I appreciate value and I can not find any in Mac. I could never support a company that has elitism and arrogance as the entirety of it’s marketing approach and corporate identity.
Thanks for the random suggestion though?
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The title of this topic “Loathing the community forums” and the first sentence in the original post “[Sketchup…] makes us suffer through this community forum?” suggests strong criticism of the forum. Just sayin’. 
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@Locis can always edit the topic title and make it softer or some thing like “Fourm vs Help Center”, … but ya’ gotta admit it’s getting high traffic.
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Nice work on the Wiki Manual Dan.
Thank you.
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Thanks Steve. That was all manually compiled. I wonder if the SketchUp User Guides could be “scraped” with a Javascript utility to autocompile an index.
The Dr. Explain utility (that POSH GmbH points above) even claims to be able to “scrape” the application UI for index terms.